


Original Work

by Waywocket



Category: Original Work
Genre: Deaf Character, Kids, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24573415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waywocket/pseuds/Waywocket
Summary: A Promise.It's Johnathan's first day out of bed since he came to the small port village and a strong lesson that things never go to plan. Or maybe there never was one?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Original Work

**Author's Note:**

> This was a difficult perspective! But it was fun, I'm used to him being older and more settled in. Their trouble making ways had to start somewhere.

Sitting up in the hospital bed, dark eyes watched the doctor’s face. He was talking too fast again. Raising his hands Johnathan tried to ask him to slow down. The doctor winced and he shrunk back. That must have been too loud again, he didn’t think he’d ever get his voice right.

The doctor rolled his eyes at the boy’s face and dropped pills on the blanket in front of him before walking away. He had other patients to work with, he’d figure it out.

Which he did. Not that he was happy about it. Johnathan hated taking pills, they always got stuck in his throat. But he was better than when they got him off the boat, so he picked them up and threw them in his mouth to force them down, and tried not to make a face.

The room was still for a while, it always was in the morning. Closing his eyes tightly he concentrated as hard as he could on the world around him. Nothing, just the light as it filtered through the windows.

He remembered the words: sound, noise, voice. Words he could remember, but that was all they were. He couldn’t remember what it was like to hear, or if he ever could. Johnathan couldn’t remember anything from before the boat. Just the heat of the fever and fear of dying. The fever was gone and he felt a lot better, but nothing else had come back. 

All the other children had left the village already, off with new people to take care of them. Everyone, but him. No one wanted a boy that couldn’t hear. 

Scrubbing his eyes he opened them again and jumped with a gasp.

Bright green eyes set on a tan face stared at him hardly a few inches from his own. Tiffany had come to visit again. The only one that had since he got there. She was a tiny little blonde, maybe half his age he thought. She had said she was five, or so he assumed when she held up as many fingers and pointed at herself.

When she noticed he opened his eyes she beamed and sat on the edge of the bed. She waved her arms in excitement and started to quickly go on about something. She talked faster than anyone he saw. She was the only one that would slow down too.

He raised a hand to tell her he couldn’t understand and she clapped her hands over her mouth. Laughing he shook his head. Not understanding was frustrating, but she was trying. That’s what mattered. 

Slowing down, she tried again. While he couldn’t understand everything, he gathered she was excited by cats. He remembered those, she brought one in once. It had clawed her and the doctor had chased it out. He didn’t think cats were something to get excited over. But, she was excited, and he was happy when she was, so he figured it was okay. 

At least until she tried to tug him out of bed. He tried to tell her he had to stay, tried to be quieter this time. The look she gave him, he must have done something wrong. If the doctor was still giving him medicine he had to stay, he understood that much.

Tiffany frowned at that. Letting go she rushed out and to the doctor, leaving him alone. 

Being alone after she left was the worst. She made being stuck in that bed more bearable. The room always felt too empty.

After a moment Tiffany came in with the doctor in tow. He looked even more upset to be dragged back into the room. He didn’t try to say anything this time, simply pointed to the door then to the windows and pressed down on the air. 

Jonathan didn’t get it, but he didn’t have time to figure it out as Tiffany dragged him out of bed again. He could leave, that was all that mattered. 

Stumbling over the bedding he rushed to get dressed properly. Now that he was better, they almost fit right. He wouldn’t have to hold his pants to run at least. His shoes were hardly on his feet before Tiffany was dragging him out the door.

It took all of his efforts to keep his balance while she dragged him around behind her. He could see she was talking, but he couldn’t read her lips when he was trailing behind. That was probably okay, he was just happy to be outside again.

Tiffany took him into a crowd of adults bustling about stalls. He was pretty sure she said something about a market. Stopping at every stall she waved and tried to talk to them. Some smiled warmly at Tiffany and stopped to talk to her, not that Johnathan could keep up. The vacant look on the adults’ faces told him they weren’t faring any better. That made him feel a little better.

No one seemed to give him any notice. It bothered him a little, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want Tiffany to stop smiling.

There were a lot of people she wanted to show him and it was a little exhausting. Following her around he smiled and waved when she pointed at him, best not to test his voice out here with so many people. The smile never lasted though.

They frowned at him and said something he couldn’t understand. But if he had to guess by the way Tiffany frowned right back and scrunched her nose, it wasn’t a kind hello. She looked angry as she pointed at the adults before dragging him off again, he worried he was going to get her in trouble. 

Luckily, he didn’t have to suffer through that long before she tugged him back down to the dock. There were more adults there, but she steered clear of them and held a finger over her lips before he could even try to ask.

With a shrug, he crouched down with her behind some large boxes and looked over her head. Nestled between everything were cats, a lot of them! Some were very tiny, eyes not open, and hardly able to move. Others were, well they were still smaller than the cat Tiffany had brought before, but bigger than the ones with their eyes closed.

While he was trying to figure out why there were so many different kinds of cats he didn’t notice the much bigger ones coming back with fish in their mouths. At least not until Tiffany tugged on his shirt.

They were watching the two of them with their ears pinned back. 

Something was wrong, they didn’t look happy to see them, that was for sure. Tiffany was telling him something, but he couldn’t look, they were slowly walking closer. They should have left.

When the first one swiped their claws at them Johnathan covered Tiffany as pain shot up his hand. Without thinking he lifted her in his arms and ran. It was hard to carry her and run, but he had to! 

As he ran off the docks he dared to look back and see that all of the big cats were following them. He yelled once and kept running. Back up to the market. Maybe he could lose them with all the adults.

Up the hill and into the crowd he didn’t stop, even when there were hands on him, he didn’t know if the cats were gone. He ran until his legs hurt and he was out of breath. He ran until the world went dark and he went down.

When he woke up again he sat up with a start and looked around. Briefly, he wondered if it had been a dream, or maybe a nightmare? But it had been nice up until the cats attacked them.

He felt something squeeze his hand. Looking over he found Tiffany sitting on the edge of his bed again. Only now she had bandages on her cheek and wrapped around her hand. Not a dream then. After that work to get her away and she still got hurt.

When he tried to apologize she just smiled brighter and looked like she was laughing. Excited as ever she started on. He caught a few words and assumed she was talking about the day. Cats, docks, fall. Even though they had been chased and gotten hurt she was bright and happy as ever.

Johnathan smiled and hugged her tightly. She kept talking, he could feel it and he laughed. No matter what happened, he promised himself he would always look after her. Powers knew she would need it.


End file.
